


I'll Prick My Finger For Love

by UisceOneLove



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Disabled Character, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Charles Xavier in a Wheelchair, Cute, Erik Has Feelings, Erik is a Good Parent, Fluff, I feel like this can be considered crack, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29208390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UisceOneLove/pseuds/UisceOneLove
Summary: Charles notices it for the first time while Erik is playing with the children.It's just a coincidence that he notices, and he's quick to brush it off in the moment.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 8
Kudos: 70
Collections: X-Men X-Traordinaire's Cherik Valentine's Day Exchange





	I'll Prick My Finger For Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [midrashic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/midrashic/gifts).



> Prompt: "Did you know when you get angry all the metal in the room develops little spikes? It's cute."

Charles notices it for the first time while Erik is playing with the children.

It's just a coincidence that he notices, and he's quick to brush it off in the moment. 

Because it is an extraordinary thing to feel the weightlessness of Erik's cares while the older mutant runs around with them. There's an unfiltered joy that will radiate from him. It was impossible not to get it secondhand. 

Charles was parked in the shade of one of the many trees that surround the property, a book left forgotten in his lap while he fondly watched his husband get tackled by Wanda, Pietro, and Lorna. The air was filled with their squeals of laughter and high-pitched pleas for more games. 

David sat by Charles' chair on one of the blankets, watching with a vested interest in the proceedings.

"Why don't you go play with them?" Charles suggested to his sweet little one. David was such a shy one, but they were working on that. He'd been shy himself at that age. Raven had been at his side to help him through it, David had the girls and Pietro. 

David started to shake his head only to be startled by Wanda appearing by his side.

"David!" Wanda took his hand and tugged to try and get him up. "You need to come play! Papa's going to make us fly!"

"That sounds marvelous, Wanda," Charles said, smiling at the children. "Go on, David, go and fly. You'll be perfectly safe." 

David still looked torn at the prospect while they could see Erik moving his hands around as Pietro soars around in the air. Wanda tugged on David's hand again.

"Please, David?"

David relented and nodded, letting Wanda help him up and being dragged off to join the others.

Charles appreciated how much Wanda Lorna would try to include David in their games. Once David let his guard down, he was all smiles and carefree like any other child. Erik surrounded by the children, flying them in the air, it was a dream that Charles could not have had previously and now would do anything to keep it as their reality. 

After a few minutes of them each getting their turns to fly courtesy of the small bands of metal Erik had made using some of the metal beads he would carry around specifically for the task of entertaining their young ones and the students of this age, Charles was dismayed by some bickering that started up.

"I wanna go again!" Pietro demanded in a huff, speeding around Erik in spurts to get his attention. 

"Patience, Pietro," Erik told the boy, his eyes and hold on David.

"It's David's turn," Wanda stated to her twin, Lorna standing next to her with her arms crossed and chin jutted out. It was an endearing image as opposed to the tough stance the child was so clearly aiming for. 

"Yeah," Lorna said, "you already got to go a bunch."

"But he's taking forever!" Pietro huffed and stomped his foot, and that's where the real scuffle started.

The girls and Pietro started with the shoving and roughhousing, much to his and Erik's displeasure. Erik set David down gently, the metal cuffs slipping off and coming into one bubble of metal by the man while he turned his attention to the row. 

Charles had his hand out for David as the boy came hurrying back to him and out of line from the little fray. That was when he noticed the metal band and linings of his watch looking strangely bubbled. He brought it up closer to inspect it and saw they were tiny spikes protruding from the metal. He tapped a finger against them and felt only a little prick like that of a pin. But then they were gone and by the time he was looking at the children again to see Erik's taken care of them, the spikes were gone.

At the time, Charles had simply assumed it had been Lorna's abilities acting up in her participation in the row and left it at that. Perhaps, if his chair hadn't been made of special alloys that Hank had developed years ago to prevent anyone like Erik and Lorna from being able to control it, then there would have been a bigger sign for him to take note of.

But then Charles was catching stories of it happening from others in the mansion.

One that he had been prepared to brush off again had come from Logan, who he had run into in the hall looking more perturbed than usual.

"Was there a problem with the simulator today?" he'd asked, only to receive one of Logan's disgruntled glares while he shook out his hand. 

"Chuck, you need to get Magneto to learn to keep his own anger issues in check," Logan informed him, "and that's comin from someone who's got plenty of his own."

Charles blinked up at his friend, uncertain of how to proceed with that. "I--I'm sorry, Logan, I don't think I understand."

"That new thing he's doing is too dangerous for me," Logan shook his head, "I got too many things in here that can get popped."

He had meant to ask about the incident further, but there'd been a new student he had to look into. When he had the time later on in the day, it had already appeared that Logan and Erik buried whatever hatchet had been brought out before. 

Then there was a morning when he had wheeled into the kitchen for a cup of tea and found Bobby and Storm huddled together over a cutting board, using a sharp blade of ice to cut up some vegetables.

"Bobby? Ororo? Did we lose possession of the cutlery?" he asked in confusion, looking over the countertops as if that would give him the answer.

Bobby winced and gave him a grimace, "Sorry, Professor, there was kind of a...special morning." 

"What kind of special morning?"

"Erik," Ororo answered with a frown.

Charles' brows flew up. "Erik? What did he do?"

"I sense it was unintentional," she replied, the frown giving way to a bemused look, "but the knives are currently unusable unless we want the students to carry miniature ancient weaponry."

Ororo went to the sink and lifted up what was once a knife but now looked closer in appearance to a mace; the blade was covered in sharp pointed spikes that did not look like a joy to be touched.

"They're... _ all _ that way?" Charles asked, staring at it in astonishment.

"You should've seen the fridge," Bobby commented lightly, only to shrink at Storm's reproachful glance. "But those spikes fixed themselves, so, all good!"

Charles shook his head. "I don't understand why he would have done it at all."

"He'd gotten upset overhearing the new mutant bill discussions on the television," Ororo explained, "it happened from there. I really do believe he had no knowledge of doing it."

From then on, Charles did make it a point to be more observant around his husband. The spikes only came out when Erik was well and angry, upset, or deeply frustrated. Always spikes, nothing else. 

He could see them happen when they're swept up in the usual ideological debates, the spikes decorating the light fixtures or the jet. After a particularly bad blow-out with Hank, Charles made it a point to keep Erik out of the lab. But it would even happen during their chest matches if one of them had the other in a fantastic lock.

No one was getting hurt, which was the biggest relief to Charles and why he hesitated to mention the development to the man he loved.

But another reason, a more ridiculous and selfish one, was that it was endearing to the telepath. Erik's spent his life portraying himself as a strong, immutable presence that had gained a solid strength in himself and his abilities. So watching these spikes pop into view when his husband's worked up, not even when they're in the middle of a battle against some threat, Charles wanted to fondly play with them and kiss the irritants out of Erik. 

There was no hiding it forever but Charles sure tried to make the best of it until then.

There's no holding back about it by the time their date night comes around a couple of months later. Charles quite pitied the poor maitre'd, system errors happen all the time, it's not as if the poor thing had been the one to do it themselves.

It was by the quick instinct of his telepathy that Charles was able to keep the door from slamming into him as Erik entered the mansion first.

"It is entirely unprofessional!" Erik roared, storming through the manor's living room. 

Charles did his best to take the fit seriously but he was at a disadvantage. "I need you to calm yourself, love, it's perfectly all right."

"No, Charles, it is  _ not _ all right."

There was something, possibly wrongfully, amusing to Charles about witnessing Erik go into a rage over a dinner reservation. The amusing part came from what happened in response to the man's anger, though that most likely didn't make his reaction any better.

"It happens, Erik," Charles said in a calming voice to try and soothe the older man, "it's only dinner. We could have gone elsewhere. You know it only matters to me that we have a good time."

"That is not the  _ point _ ," Erik said through clenched teeth, only to glower when Charles could no longer hold in his laughter. " _ What is so hysterical to you _ ?"

"I'm sorry love," he replied between breaths, "but do you not see what is happening around us?" 

Erik's brows pulled together in a furrow as he frowned at the telepath. Charles emphasized his request with a splay of his hands, the other mutant getting the message and taking a literal look around. 

The man Charles loved so dearly stared blankly at the little spikes and nodules that surrounded them on the various metal items that littered the sitting room. The knobs of the television were ready to poke an eye out, lightbulbs were askew in the lamps as the metal was bending and ready to be adorned as a punk bracelet. The room could be considered a draft for the next medieval torture chamber.

"Charles."

"Yes, love?"

"The spikes."

"Yes?" Charles prompted, his lips wobbling from the effort of gaining any semblance of self-control.

Erik, ready to lash back out in his frustration, stopped himself when the spikes started growing longer and sharper.

"Has this been something occurring fairly often?" Erik tried again. The effort it took for the man to flatten and fix the problem was another thing that Charles should not have found so amusing but alas, with Erik, it was next to impossible.

"I would say it has," Charles nodded. 

"And you said nothing to me about it?"

Charles wheeled closer to his husband and took his hand. "I apologize, Erik, but it was so very unexpected in the beginning and then all of the times after that were so…"

"So, what?" Erik prompted, not pulling away but still unhappy about the development.

Charles tugged on Erik's hand. The man didn't budge. "Come down here, please." It took more tugging for the man to relent and kneel down. He released Erik's hand to smooth out the frown-lines and wrinkles on his beloved's face until Erik batted the hands away with exasperation. "I couldn't tell you because it was, frankly, so completely adorable."

Erik pulled back from him. "Adorable?" he asked incredulously. "Charles, how is having an apparent lack of control over my abilities when I am angered considered adorable?"

"It's not as if you're throwing things around or attacking someone when it happens," Charles pointed out, grabbing Erik's shoulders to prevent him from getting too far, "they're cute little spikes. The children love it."

Erik groaned miserably, "The children have seen it?"

Charles laughed softly this time and kissed Erik's forehead, moving a hand up to cup the back of his neck. "I assure you, they find it as adorable as I do. A fun little thing they get to see."

"Is that why Pietro has suddenly taken to speeding around the mansion every chance he gets?"

"I have a feeling it might be."

The man sighed tiredly, and Charles sought to remedy it with another kiss. Erik leaned into it this time, curling his hand over Charles's knee.

"You know that I am going to look into stopping it from happening now, don't you?"

"Please don't," Charles pleaded, nuzzling Erik's jaw. "The great Magneto should have a flaw we can all enjoy."

"Charles."

"We can even do some exploration into  _ other _ applications for it."

Erik shuddered violently but the rasped " _ Charles _ " and the thoughts that followed it had the telepath grinning in victory.


End file.
